Reason why People Watch Reality TV Shows

The evolution of television content is currently steadily moving towards reality television shows. The shift from interest in fiction drama series to reality shows has turned the regular television viewers into addicted voyeurs. There have been diverse views on the effect of reality television shows ranging from support to criticism. George Will, in his article “Reality television: oxymoron” believes that reality television is making ordinary people degenerate morally and act stupid in the effort to please a disinterested audience. Reality TV shows are relying heavily on building extraordinary characters or events out of the norm and attract the attention of the audience. Kellner argues that the audience is enticed by “media constructs

Motive of Author: To analyze the evolution of reality television as a genre. To discuss the various methods that reality TV invokes in order to entertain its audiences. To discover the definition of reality TV through examining several generations of reality TV over the years.

There are many different opinions when the subject of reality television is discussed. Although reality television shows are thought to be negative they really are just mindless entertainment. Many can argue that these shows are misleading and disturbing. On the other side of this, people merely use these shows for entertainment and allow people to forget about stress in their lives. The cause of these different opinions is a result of different age, gender, religion, and race. The main purpose of these shows is simply to allow people to live vicariously through the characters. This excitement of being in other people’s lives is what makes reality television so addicting to people.

The reality TV fad that is not going anywhere anytime soon, no matter how much some of us wish it had never started. As seen through the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist perspectives, reality TV has become an integral part of society.

Lastly, reality television programs are detrimental to society because they humiliate many of the characters. This is detrimental to the characters because of obvious reasons such as suicide. The effects of this on society are even greater. Many people watch shows such as American Idol because they find it humorous when some of the characters have awful singing abilities, and therefore humiliate themselves. In my opinion, this makes many viewers bullies inside. If an individual watches the misfortune of others to make them feel better about themself, they are a bully. Therefore, reality television indirectly causes people to be bullies. Studies show that if a person has negative thoughts as a result of watching people humiliated on television; they may begin to

In the midst of this generation, reality television has become very popular, it has begun to promote stereotypes. TV critics feel that reality television has been developed to entertain or cheer people up. Some reality shows can be good for individuals who like them, while some of them can be bad, depending on the show. As for opinion, television is the greatest invention that has been made because it helps people learn lessons about life, by educating and to experience new things. It helps to encourage people and can lead them to make important decisions about their futures.

In the essay, “Getting down to what is really real,” John Sullivan tells us about his thoughts on reality TV and explains why people are attracted to those shows. Some people might not like to admit they watch reality TV but it’s almost impossible to avoid hearing about it if you’re present on social media. We like watching it because it makes our lives look less stressful and drama is fun when you aren’t involved in it. It is easy to get attached to the characters and their unique personalities and most of all, people love the opportunity for easy fame.

Reality TV shows will continue to thrive as they fill up TV screens in homes all across the nation. The people that watch reality television will go through their daily routine waiting anxiously for their favorite part of the day when they can take a seat on the couch, kick their feet back, and catch up on the latest gossip

In Cynthia Frisby’s "Getting Real with Reality TV" she claims that many people revolve their lives around reality TV. I agree with Frisby because of her idea that viewers are using social comparison to find gratification within their own lives. Frisby also explains how reality TV is a big part of how people live and it’s getting harder and harder to get away from it.

Reality TV is known as exciting entertainment because the audience never knew what will happen next as it is with no strings attached and even have the freedom of speech. Despite the entertainment it can bring, the content of reality shows are actually degrading the society. Our pop culture and civilization have been affected by the reality programs in a bad way. Indeed, reality TV is promoting bad social value to the

“Reality shows are everywhere, from cable and broadcast television to the Internet. Reality TV programming has generated millions of viewers,

For close to a decade, the ethics behind the existence of reality TV have been questioned. While there are ardent viewers of reality TV, researchers and other scholars disapprove them, and claim that the world would have been in a better place. Reality TV shows, especially in America, are extremely profitable to media owners, and this has increased their popularity in the recent years. The main target audience for these shows are teenagers and women, who spend a lot of time discussing about them, even hours after the shows. Most of the reality shows in America and other parts of the world have common ideas. The most fundamental aspect of most reality TV shows is that they display people who go through embarrassing, painful and humiliating ordeals. This is what the reality shows expect their audiences to be entertained, and presumably laugh at the situations the people go through. For this reason and many more, it has been found that they are more detrimental than entertaining to the society, and therefore, the world would be in a better place without them (Pozner 89-91).

To quote Matt Philbin, managing editor of the MRC Culture & Media Institute, “the problem with much of reality TV is that it isn’t about real people or reality at all. These are highly scripted, performed shows, ‘written’ like a piece of fiction and as such they need the classic conflict-driven characters and soap opera melodrama.”

The cultural phenomenon ‘Reality Television (TV)’ has become an increasingly popular genre of television since its paroxysm onto the airwaves in 1945. The term ‘Reality Television’ can be defined as the genre of entertainment that documents the lives of ‘ordinary’ individuals through the exhibition of allegedly unscripted real-life scenarios, despite inquisitive inquiries disclosing Reality TV to entail facets of script. The primary objective of Reality TV is purely to entertain the audience. This genre of television is appealing to viewers due to its entertainment principle/value, the audience’s competency to correlate to the characters and their situations, and the contingency it presents for escapism and voyeurism. We can capitalise the Australian appropriation of the American popular dating Reality TV show ‘The Bachelor’ as a tool to further comprehend the purpose and appeal of Reality television. The postulations of media’s obligations to society in contrast to their current actions and media as a mirror to society - the normative theory, can also be utilised as an implement to apprehend Reality TV. Through the strict analysis of ‘ The Bachelor’ and the employment of the normative theory, the purpose and appealing factor of Reality TV can be deeply examined.

There has been a huge increase in “reality” based television over the last few years. From Survivor to Big Brother it seems that we are constantly being bombarded with a new type of reality television program. But why do people watch these shows? What makes these shows so interesting? One theory brought up in an article in Psychology Today by Steven Reiss Ph.D. and James Wiltz, a Ph.D. candidate at Ohio State University, is that, “reality television allows Americans to fantasize about gaining status through automatic fame” (Reiss and Wiltz, 2001). This is the American dream, acquiring fame with little to no work at all. And what better way to do it than on television?